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Todoroki Raichi
Todoroki Raichi is a student of Yakushi High School. He is the third baseman of the Yakushi High School baseball team, and the team's unparalleled fourth batter. He also takes up an alternate position as a pitcher later. Appearance Raichi has dark, spiky hair and a メ-shaped scar on his left cheek. He usually has very small irises, but when he is particularly impassioned, he is drawn without irises. Despite his somewhat smaller stature, Raichi is a very well-built player. Character Todoroki Raichi behaves much like an exaggerated version of Sawamura, who is often compared to him. He acts wildly during games, often loudly declaring that he will send his opponent's pitches flying. During matches he constantly lets out his signature "KAHAHAHAHA!!" laugh and seems to use this laugh indiscriminately, as he is shown laughing after both successes and failures, and even when nervous. When he performs a successful play- be it catching a ball to get someone out, throwing the ball to someone at a base, or sending an opponent's pitches flying- Raichi is shown to have a massive grin with an often somewhat frightening look on his face. Despite his loudness and wild expressions, Raichi has respect for all of his teammates. He is also not quite as confident as he seems as he gets flustered in certain situations such as when he makes a mistake during a game. He can come across as scatterbrained since he forgets to bring his hat or glove with him on the field a few times. A notable trait that Raichi shares with fellow first year Sawamura Eijun is the annoying habit to give advice to his senpai despite being known for making mistakes. Ironically, Sawamura even points out that Raichi is disrespectful. Outside of baseball, his personality is the opposite as he is surprisingly quiet and shy in class, so much so that one of his classmates disregards him as a bench-warmer. Though Raichi says there is no one in particular he 'respects,' he has been shown to admire Yūki Tetsuya from Seidou, who is on-par and even better than him when it comes to batting.Chapter 111 History When Raichi was little, his father gave him a huge and heavy wooden bat with the words "Money Tree" engraved on it for Raichi to use when he practice his swings. Raizou tells him of a 160km/h pitch speed and compares it with a bullet train. Raichi eventually develops "image training" and with the wooden bat, imagines to duel against monster pitchers having a 160km/h fastball and various breaking balls. Plot Act I: West Tokyo Tournament Preliminaries In the Yakushi - Ichidaisan match-up at the West Tokyo Tournament,Anime episode 31, Manga chapter 90 he hits a homerun off Manaka Kaname surprising Ichidaisan and Seidou. Manaka is sent to the outfield after the homerun affected his rhythm. The pitcher later recovers his form and Raichi face him off for the second time. He hits Manaka's breaking ball but the ball goes straight to Manaka who falls to the ground. Despite this, Manaka picks up the ball and outs Raichi. Manaka is pulled out due to injury and despite Ichidaisan's efforts, Yakushi wins after a fierce batting game. After that match, he practices his swings outside the stadium and is supervised by his father and coach, Todoroki Raizou. Raizou tells Raichi that the only pitcher left in West Tokyo that's worth Raichi's time is Inashiro's Narumiya Mei. Unknown to both of them, Seidou's freshmen trio hears the remark infuriating Sawamura and Furuya.Anime episode 32, Manga chapter 93 Quarter-finals At the quarter-final, Raichi is moved from the 4th batter to the lead-off batter. At the line-up, the Seidou players all glare at Raichi. Sanada Shunpei points this out and Mishima asks Raichi what he did. Raichi however, can only laugh. At match time, he gets to duel Furuya first and becomes excited after the first and second pitches. He hits the third pitch hard to the fence and gets on to second base. At Yakushi's second batting cycle, Sawamura replaces Furuya. After a couple of throws, Raichi thinks Sawamura's got potential and has a great weapon. He eventually hits but the ball is caught by Sawamura. He faces Sawamura again at Yakushi's third cycle and this time, hits a homerun. This affects Sawamura's rhythm and is eventually switched with Kawakami. Kawakami too however, is affected by the homerun and Miyuki decides to walk Raichi. Tanba later replaces Kawakami and in a mend-or-break situation, Raichi succumbs down to the pressure of scoring for his team. He gets struck out and Yakushi loses the match. Raichi breaks down in tears but is later on told by his senpai's they don't blame him and that they'll be waiting for the day everyone knows his name. Aftermath He is seen with Raizou to be watching on TV the Koshien final matchup of Inashiro and Komadai Fujimaki. During their off season Yakushi have a scrimmage against Seidou High.Anime episode 67 When the Yakushi players arrive at Seidou, they see Furuya and Sawamura stretching on the field. Raichi jumps over the fence and declares that he'll smash both pitchers away. At game time, during his first at-bat, he fights Furuya with fouls before popping a flier to center field. The crowd cheers for Furuya while Raichi feels frustrated being overpowered by Furuya's fastball. He later on hits a clean homerun off Sawamura, noting that he thought Sawamura would be attacking the inside more but the pitcher didn't. With Kawakami unable to hold Yakushi's batters down, Yakushi wins the scrimmage. Fall Tournament Third Round Yakushi High face off against Akikawa Academy. Shunshin had kept Yakushi scoreless and Raichi down to a walk and a single. In the eighth inning, Shunshin face Raichi head on and despite being cornered, the first year hit a solo home run, cementing Yakushi's victory.Anime Season 2, Episode 19 Semi-finals At the semis, Yakushi plays against Ichidaisan High and Amahisa has his eyes on Raichi. On top of the second, Raichi hit a solo-homer off Amahisa but instead of crushing Amahisa's spirit, it ignites a fire in the pitcher. At Raichi's second at-bat, he hit one off Amahisa once more but Yakushi fails to score. On top of the sixth, Raichi's third at-bat, he hit Amahisa's low slider not so strongly but enough to get to first. At Sanada's at-bat, Raichi attempts to run all the way to the plate but doesn't make it. On top of the eighth, Raichi face-off against Amahisa for the fourth time and he ends up feeling frustrated for getting struck out swinging. With Sanada's bat however, Yakushi turns the game around and wins the game.Anime Season 2, Episode 38 Finals TBA Act II Yakushi participates in the 84th Spring Koshien. Raichi is shown to have hit a homerun during Yakushi's match against Ikuei High. He then watches Seidou High's match against Komadai Fujimaki together with his teammates. In the semi-finals, Seiseisha defeats Yakushi before Raichi's at-bat.Manga Act II, Chapter 11 Spring Tournament In the third round of the Spring Tournament, Yakushi High face-off against Inashiro Industrial. On his first at-bat, Narumiya corners him and Raichi, really impressed with Narumiya's pitching is jammed with a fastball. At his second and third at-bats, Narumiya struck him out on three pitches.Manga Act II, Chapter 18-19 In the ninth inning, Inashiro on the lead with four runs, Narumiya closes out the game without giving Yakushi's clean-up crew the chance to turn the game around. The loss however, didn't keep Raichi down for long shouting loud behind the dugout that he'll blow Inashiro out of the park.Manga Act II, Chapter 20 Relationships with other characters Todoroki Raizou Raichi is the son of Todoroki Raizou, the coach of Yakushi's baseball team. Raizou makes fun of his son during games but is also very proud of him. Sanada Shunpei Raichi has respect for Sanada like he has for all of his teammates. Raichi calls him "Sanada-senpai" and often calls out (unnecessary) words of encouragement during games. Mishima & Akiba Raichi's best friends are Akiba and Mishima. Raichi's father taught the three of them baseball when they were young; the lessons were held under a bridge. Raichi has a habit of saying Mishima's name incorrectly, much to Mishima's annoyance, and calls Akiba "Akki." Skills Batting: Raichi is a player with exceptional athleticism. His greatest strength is his batting prowess and his home run output is undoubtedly among the best within the series. He's always practicing his swing with his extra-heavy wooden bat (given name "Money Tree"), when he switches to a metallic bat during games, his swing speed is frighteningly fast. His scary sharp swings are very intimidating to pitchers as they become conscious of the fact that any slip up may potentially cost them a home run. He can jump very high despite his short stature and catch balls that would normally be out of his reach. He is also very quick on his feet as demonstrated when he steals a base, adding pressure to the pitcher on the mound. Pitching: Raichi can play as a makeshift pitcher. He makes a large stride with a low center of gravity when he pitches and his lower body is strong enough to support him allowing him to throw surprisingly fast pitches (140km/h+). His pitch velocity would even get faster throughout the game as he gets into a groove. However, he has erratic control since he never checks his grip before pitching and would often achieve random breaking movements on his pitches. His pitching is said to be very wild and unpredictable as he occasionally throws balls and then suddenly lands good consecutive strikes in the pitching zone. Because of this, there are such instances where he nearly injures Miyuki and Kawakami Norifumi during the Fall Tournament finals. Regardless, Raichi is inherently not a pitcher so when he started to become aware of the pressure exerted from batters, his pitching would start to break down drastically.S2 - Episode 45 Player Statistics This data is based on the official guidebook, it will only be changed if there is an official update! Trivia *His characteristic laugh is "KAHAHAHA." *During the Summer tournament Raichi wore jersey No. 20. *Terajima Yūji published a story about Raichi back in 2003, before Diamond no Ace began. The story (or at least part of it) is titled "The Bat-man Under the Bridge" (橋の下のバットマン). *He's hit home-runs off every pitcher he's battled against with the exception of Tanba Koichiro, Furuya Satoru and Narumiya Mei. *He is most likely the only character in the series that does not have a phone of any kind. *'Rankings' from the guidebook: **''Physical Ability'': Has the third best speed in the series. **''Batting'': The longest distance homerun was hit by Raichi off You Shunshin in the Fall Tokyo tournament - the ball flew 140m, passing the fence which is 97.6m away from the batter on the way. ***He ranks second in having the best batting power (behind Seiko's Nagata). *Favorite Food : Banana, Tonkatsu (pork cutlet) *Best Subjects : Health and Physical Education *His hobbies include practicing his swing and eating bananas. *Has the ability to differentiate banana's origin country. Ace of Diamond Character Song Series 10: Todoroki Raichi - Drama Tracks 2-3 *Raichi has had great success as a pitcher against Miyuki due to the fact that he is so wild and random with his pitches that Miyuki cannot get a read on him. *His walk up song is the theme song from Ultra Seven. *Professional NPB player Yuki Yanagita , Pacific League MVP in 2015, was asked in an interview how could he generate so much power with his swing and he responded that he models his swing after Todoroki Raichi from Diamond no Ace, which he coined a V-shape swing. However, Yanagita utlizes a low leg kick, while Raichi does not perform any leg kicks. Name Etymology *Todoroki (轟) - Roaring *Raichi (雷市) - City of Thunder/Lightning Quotes *"More...I want to hit more...and more..." Raichi in chapter 93. *"Pitchers are awesome. Baseball is deep."Raichi in chapter 388. Gallery Raichi.jpg|Todoroki Raichi Todoroki Raichi.png Raichisbattingskills.jpg|Raichi's batting being shown for the first time Raichisimaginetraining.jpg|Raichi's Imagine Training Raichi practice.png|Raichi during practice Eijun.raichi.png|Raichi vs Eijun Raichi at bat.png|Raichi at bat Raichibatting.gif|Raichi's batting Raichipitching.gif|Raichi's pitching Raichi00.png References Navigation fr:Todoroki Raichi Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Yakushi High School Category:Third Baseman Category:Players Category:2nd Year High School